


Circle Nights

by CocotteJenn



Series: Ana Surana, Alwyn Hawke (aka the Sad Mages worldstate) [2]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: Backstory, Brother-Sister Relationships, Children, Circle of Magi, Comfort, Family Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Light Angst, Nightmares, Pre-Dragon Age: Origins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-13 22:49:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15375117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CocotteJenn/pseuds/CocotteJenn
Summary: When little Surana has a nightmare, she finds her big brother Anders to give her comfort.





	Circle Nights

**** He was deep in sleep, dreaming of vast verdant fields and the smell of his mother’s apple pie fresh off the oven, when tiny hands started shaking his body with surprising vigor. “Anders! Wake up, please! Anders!”   
  
“Ugh! What do you want?” he answered with bitterness, hiding his face into his pillow in the hope that the eight-year-old girl might disappear if she wasn’t in his direct field of vision.   
  
“I had a nightmare.”   
  
Sighing, the teenage boy dared to look up at his little friend. Her elven eyes gleamed in the dark, like a cat observing him with curiosity. Surana shifted closer to him, and he noticed that those little eyes were red and puffy around the edges. It was obvious that she had cried, even though she was trying to cover it by putting on a brave face.   
  
“What, again?” Anders asked, trying — and failing — to hide his exasperation.   
  
The elf gave him a small nod, looking at him with big pleading silver eyes. Each time she had a bad dream she would come crawling into his bed every night for at least a week. He didn’t mind as much as he led her to believe — he loved her like the little sister he never had — but this was starting to worry him. If the Templars found out about those incessant nightmares, about how she was sneaking out of the girls’ dormitory every time it happened… What if they took her away? What if he wasn’t strong enough to protect her? Her dreams never even had any demons in them! She was just a scared child — they all were in this place. She was an innocent little girl, surely Irving wouldn’t let any harm come to her. But Anders knew better. The words of the First Enchanter could only carry so much weight before the Templars stepped in with their blades. What if the Knight-Commander thought she could be dangerous? She was a gifted child, way ahead of some of the other children. But what if that drew too much attention to her? What if the Templars thought she would become too powerful? What if they made her Tranquil before she even reached her teenage years? Could they even do that? Was it allowed for them to take a child so young and deprive them of all emotions?   
  
_Stop it! Think happy thoughts_. Like that time Surana had “accidentally” frozen a templar’s nose. Her only punishment had been to copy the Canticle of Transfigurations in its entirety.  _ Magic exists to serve man, and never to rule over him_. She had hated every second of it. " _Couldn’t you have at least chosen one of the more interesting Canticles?_ " she had whined loudly. " _Then it wouldn’t be a punishment, child,_ " the First Enchanter had lectured her. " _O Maker, hear me cry! For this is more boring than Flora’s diatribes!_ "   
  
Anders himself wasn't devoid of wrongdoing. He had planned to escape the Tower at least half a dozen times — and had actually succeeded in doing so three times so far. Even though the sanctions seemed to be a bit harsher each time the Templars caught him, he hadn’t been made Tranquil yet. They weren't going to take Ana away for sneaking around the tower at night. This was stupid to even think about. Other apprentices often left their dorms at night to perform far less innocent acts, and they had rarely been given more than a good scolding.   
  
Surana had told him when they'd met that she would one day prove to the world that mages could achieve greatness, that their powers could bring good to the world and that they shouldn't be feared. Anders had laughed at the then six-year-old and pointed out that History was full of mages who could be considered heroes in their own rights, but the Chantry was too content to ignore them. Surana had then spent days in the library, trying to glean as much information about these people as she could. She had returned to him a few weeks later with all that knowledge and said " _I’ve decided that I’m going to become Court Enchanter, just you wait_." At the time, he had laughed again, but her resolve was quite impressive. And it was during nights like this one that Anders wanted to believe she would one day achieve her dreams.   
  
“What do you do when I’m not here?” he asked her with kindness. She most likely still had nightmares, even when he was sneaking around the tower himself, or trying to flee the Templars after yet another desperate escape attempt. He wondered if during those nights she stayed awake, crying in silence, not even daring to close her eyes. He felt a pang of guilt for leaving her alone in this cruel place every time he tried to escape.   
  
The tiny elf shrugged. “I find someone else,” she told him as if it were obvious. That was a relief. Of course, she had other friends, apprentices closer to her own age. Anders remembered them now. He had seen them following her around the tower. One of them even seemed more annoying than she was — if that was at all possible.   
  
“Then why don’t you go bother them instead of me?” he asked, knowing full well that there was nothing he could say that would make her leave.   
  
She rolled her eyes. She didn’t call him stupid, but he could hear it in her tone as she answered him, “Because you’re here now.” Well, you couldn’t argue with that logic. At least not with an eight-year-old girl whose adorable pouts could probably melt the heart of the Knight-Commander himself.   
  
A soft smile appearing on his lips, Anders slid to the side of the bed and pulled the covers up to let her slip in. She climbed effortlessly onto the bed, her face beaming with happiness as she drew close to him.   
  
“Can’t the Tranquil make potions that could help with the dreaming?” he asked, still worried.   
  
“They make me sick,” she said, closing her eyes. “And you wouldn’t want me vomiting all over you, now would you?”   
  
Anders chuckled as he wrapped his arms around her. He had to remind himself that the problem wasn’t the nightmares, not really. Surana was just scared. Even if the bad dreams stopped, she still would have troubles falling asleep on her own. The Circle was a dark place for a small child. As far as he knew, she had been ripped from her family like the rest of them, even younger than Anders himself had been at the time.   
  
“What was your dream about?” he asked casually. Maybe if he knew what she was most afraid of he could reassure her about it. Maybe if she stopped being scared the nightmares would disappear.   
  
“I dreamt that you were gone,” she told him, already half asleep. “For good this time.”   
  
Anders gulped. He could tell her that he would never abandon her, that he would always be there for her no matter what, but that would be a lie. He loved her dearly, and it broke his heart as much as it would break hers to think about it, but he would try to escape again eventually. And one day he would not come back, that was a fact. One day he might succeed in eluding the Templars, or perhaps they would decide he wasn't worth all this trouble and make him Tranquil. Anything he could say to reassure the little girl at his side would be a lie, but the truth… _No_ , there was nothing he could say to her that would make things better. He felt bad about it, ashamed even. So he remained silent and held the little girl in his arms until they both fell asleep again.


End file.
